Wesley Crusher

Families in Space

In Star Trek: the Original Series, members of Star Fleet that served aboard the Enterprise were footloose and fancy-free singles. This was as it should be - a family man or woman who accepts a five-year mission of exploration isn't much of a keeper. Oh, there was the occasional hint that the mixed-gender crew might fall in love and even marry (See Balance of Terror), but this was usually for dramatic purposes - a young groom suddenly dead is sadder than the death of a random red shirt. But on balance, the original Enterprise was very much a 'ship of the line' of the Horatio Hornblower school.

That all changed in Star Trek: The Next Generation - starships were now floating cities, complete with bars, shops, schools and crew members' families aboard. This was most evident in the introduction of Wesley Crusher, teenaged son of the ship's doctor, Beverly Crusher.

Boy Genius, Gene Avatar?

The fans, to be kind, didn't take to young Wesley, for a number of reasons. First, he was introduced as a budding Einstein, a young genius who often figured out how to extricate the Enterprise from trouble. This is the very definition of a Mary Sue in male form (see A Fanfiction Glossary) and Wesley was widely believed to be Gene Roddenberry's 'Mary Sue', the character that most represented what Gene would want to be on a starship.

Also, the character seemed to be meant to appeal to a younger demographic, the pre-teens, and Star Trek fans who may have been pre-teens when the original series aired were adults now and wanted adult science fiction. Many unkind comparisons to Lost in Space were made over the introduction of families onto a starship.

Wesley Crusher, Junior Ensign

Wesley was the son of Jack Crusher, a friend of Captain Picard's, now deceased, and Picard took a fatherly interest in him for his old friend's sake. The Captain also appeared, from time to time, to take more than a friendly interest in Wesley's mother, Dr. Beverly Crusher, a lukewarm affair that never seemed to get anywhere.

Absurdly, young Crusher was used by the bridge staff as sort of an unpaid, uncommissioned intern, allowed to handle a number of bridge duties. I call it absurd because on a ship that size, he was certainly handling duties that other qualified staffers existed to do, and in a bureaucracy, such signs of favoritism to the son of the doctor would certainly raise eyebrows.

The character was much more credible when he was functioning appropriate to his age, as when his school project involving nanittes (tiny computer chips with intelligent behaviors, got loose in the ship's computer systems, or when he transgressed local customs and needed saving from his own follies.

Wil Wheaton: Life After Trek

Wesley was played by actor Wil Wheaton, fresh from his outstanding performance in the movie Stand By Me. Like many former Trek actors, he has found himself stymied by stereotyping as the 'young boy genius', but has been fairly creative in overcoming it.

He has found some considerable post-trek fame as a geek icon, and is now both a popular blogger Wil Wheaton dot net and poker professional.